In 2001, the opportunity arose for both the Medical History and Dental museums to realise a long standing wish to open up their collections to wider public view through the establishment of an online catalogue. This came about through the planned celebrations for the University's sesquicentenary in 2003, for which funds were specially put aside to enable the development of projects of historical significance to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the University's founding in 1853.

The curators of both collections met with representatives of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, heads of relevant schools and departments, and the manager of the Communications and Alumni Office, to discuss the proposal to present a joint application for funds to develop an online catalogue for both the dental and medical history collections. Support from the faculty was a prerequisite to qualify for one of the grants, and so it was with full support of the Dean and the offer of $20,000 from faculty that the application was successfully made and won. Therefore, along with the $10,000 awarded by the 150th Small Project's Program, an amount of $30,000 was made available, and the online cataloguing project could begin.

A committee and budget were set up, and a timeline and plans made that might see a large proportion of the two collections catalogued in time for a launch during the middle of 2003. This was to be no small task, to bring to order under one style and method, almost 5000 paper based records of both archival and object based material, which had been compiled by various hands, using different cataloguing procedures. An experienced cataloguer was engaged and the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (Austehc) was selected as the preferred provider of the software for the project.

After the installation of the software, and instruction from Austehc on the protocols of the system, data entry commenced initially on the Medical History Museum collections, in early 2002. Halfway through the allotted time for completion of the project, work began on the dental collection, and entries were completed on this collection in September 2003. Work will be completed on the medical collection by the time funds are exhausted in December 2003. Digital imaging of collection items has begun, and will be given highest priority as further funds become available.

Both museums are most grateful for the opportunity to achieve this important milestone in the opening up and sharing of these rich collections, and sincerely thank the university and faculty for making this project possible.